Adams County has reached a temporary deal with the county’s municipalities in an out-of-court settlement that increases the number of municipal inmates the jail will hold.

According to the settlement, the sheriff will increase the daily cap on municipal inmates to 65, up from 30, and the cities will agree to pay for any inmates exceeding that limit.

The standoff over the jail-cap policy lasted more than two years, starting soon after the policy went into effect, in January 2012.

It was meant to limit the number of municipal inmates — people that violate municipal offenses such as shoplifting, trespassing or failure to appear in court — to 30 shared among the county’s nine municipalities.

The agreement approved by the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday doesn’t dismiss the lawsuit but puts it on hold until May 15.

In the meantime, Adams County will hire a consultant to study the jail staffing issue by March 1.

The sheriff said the cap was needed because of staffing and to ease jail crowding that occurred when housing units were closed because of budget cuts.

Darr said he now will be able to accommodate the additional inmates because of a recent expansion of the supervised release program. A total of five employees now supervise about 480 inmates awaiting trial outside of jail.

That has freed up space and workload for deputies in the jail, he said.

Police chiefs of the municipalities have called the cap of 30 arbitrary and insisted that they help alleviate the crowding issues by using alternatives such as house arrest or splitting up jail sentences so they can be served at the city detention centers.

Officials from the municipalities did not comment Tuesday. Aurora officials said they would wait until the agreement was signed officially.

Darr said that although he had been frustrated seeing municipal inmates jailed for unpaid dog leash tickets, those instances have diminished.

“The cities are becoming more acutely aware of the issues,” Darr said. “But we have seen less of that type of offense because we have not allowed it to happen. Cities now will have the opportunity to decide.”

Yesenia Robles was a breaking news reporter for The Denver Post, working with the organization from 2010-2016. She covered education, crime and courts, and the northern suburbs. Raised in Denver, she graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder and is a native Spanish speaker.

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